How did the rights of Muslim women during the Islamic empire compare to the rights of other women at the same time?

Answer 1

Muslims often argue that women in the Islamic Empires had the following rights and privileges:

• Women are allowed to have their own business and sign contracts
• Women are allowed to choose their husbands
• Women are allowed to witness in the court
• Women are allowed to have inheritance
• Women are allowed to be educated and to teach others
• Any sexual acts between husband and wife should be to the acceptance, enjoyment, and satisfaction of both husband and wife.

Of course, this is fallacious and is asserted without any historical or archaeological evidence. Even if we accept uncritically the claim that Islamic Law advocates for these virtues, it is a historical untruth to say the Muslim leaders actually followed through on this. (It would be like saying that there was no slavery from the formation of the US since "all men were created equal" is in the Declaration of Independence.) The lofty words do not come down in action.

In reality, Muslim women had few rights or privileges. They were able to engage in limited commercial activities and transfer chattel properties. In some wealthier households, they could be educated. However, there were numerous professions in which they could not participate. They were witnesses of lower status (and rarely believed) in courts and could not bring claims to the court outside of family matters. Their inheritance was lesser if extent. They were expected to be submissive to the males in the house, even if the male was younger. They were also expected to be chaste until the point of marriage, often being subject to an honor killing if they were discovered to have violated this requisite. Partners in marriage were chosen for them and they had no right of refusal.

Most of the other freedoms that women lacked at this point were also lacked by men, such as: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Searches and Seizures, Political Rights and Voting, Protection from Torture, etc.

However, to answer the question most women around the world had roughly the same lower status in other places in the world regardless of Propaganda to the contrary today who state without archaeological or historical evidence that modern rights were enforced before the concept of Rights was even developed. For example, if we talk about Women in the Middle Ages Europe, they were not required to consent on marriages. In many cases they did not have rights to open a court case, although their testimony was admissible. They had almost no domestic protections from spousal abuse. They had no freedom of mobility and could not become a part of the knighthood (even if they were nobility). Some widowed women were allowed to buy and sell limited amounts of property, but for the most part they were unable to do so. Women's rights in Europe would not be substantially improved until the 1600s and 1700s. Women's rights in the Islamic World would not substantially improve until the 20th century and the rise of Feminism in Islamic Societies.